Introduction
The Miami Dance project headed by Barbara Delgado is a new and innovative way in which dance is being used as a method of encouraging children with autism to better express themselves and develop more confidence in social situations (Martinez, 1).
What must be understood is that adults and children suffering from autism are often more susceptible to stressful situations resulting in actions wherein they withdraw inwards and become silent, don’t move at all or they tend to utilize physical coping mechanisms in order to cope with the stressful situation that they are presented with.
When I was younger I had a friend who had autism and I can say from personal experience that at times when presented with a situation he couldn’t cope with such as meeting new people he would just freeze and hide or just sit down and ignore everyone else. It was at times frustrating but I felt mostly pit for him since he couldn’t seem to enjoy the things I myself took for granted.
Exploring Autism
Based on recent estimates examining the prevalence of autism in the world today 1 to 2 individuals out of every 1,000 has some degree of autism with numbers in the U.S. actually being significantly higher with the potential for 1 out of every 155 children having the potential to be autistic.
In the case of my friend I always felt a certain degree of frustration that over the years he still continued to remain the same no matter how many times I tried to help him become more outgoing.
A rather interesting aspect of autism explored by Geddes (2008) details how people with autism can actually be quite imaginative when it comes to the use of certain words and physical activities and actually leads to many individuals with this particular type disorder to seek careers as writers or artists (Geddes, 10).
Schwarzer (2011) explains this by indicating that people with autism are more “inward thinkers” rather than input interpreters (Schwarzer, 796). This means that the imaginative and at times almost brilliant and striking artistic works they are able to create are a direct result of inward thinking wherein a particular aspect, object or topic is looked at from every angle in a rigid and almost repetitive manner.
My Feelings towards the Dance Project
It is based on this that my feeling towards the Miami Dance Project is one of bittersweet remembrances; of all the times I attempted to help my friend but couldn’t. I wish that such a project had existed in the past wherein he could have attended a class, got to know people and was able to develop the ability to better express himself to people and within social situations.
For me, what the Miami dance project represents is in line with what is known as the concept of confidence building wherein through the development of certain talents children with autism will begin to have more confidence in themselves and as a result develop a greater predilection towards outgoing behavior.
Conclusion
Based on the work of Geddes (2008) and Schwarzer (2011) it can be seen that dance can be used as a method of exploration and development for autistics wherein they will be better able to express who they are and their feelings to other people. While some people may doubt the effectiveness of dance as a facilitator of behavioral change all you would need to do is examine the responses of children from the Miami Dance project to see how effective it is.
Works Cited
Geddes, Linda. “Are Autistic Savants Made Not Born?.” New Scientist 198.2659 (2008): 10. Science Reference Center. Web.
Martinez, Lynn. “Parent to Parent: Autism Dance Class.” wsvn.com. 7News, (2011):1 Web. <https://wsvn.com/>.
Schwarzer, Gudrun. “Face Processing In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Independent Or Interactive Processing Of Facial Identity And Facial.
Expression?.” Journal Of Autism & Developmental Disorders 41.6 (2011): 796- 804. Academic Search Premier. Web.